WASHINGTON — A GameStop customer made headlines by earning over $30,000 from a trade-in after selling an exceptionally rare Pokémon card to the store.

GameStop, in an announcement on X, verified this landmark deal, marking it as the largest single-card acquisition from a customer in the company’s history.

The event unfolded on December 1 in Grapevine, Texas, when a customer brought in a PSA 10 Holographic Gengar card, with a market value of around $33,883.

After thorough inspection and authentication of the card, GameStop proceeded to pay the customer $30,494.70 via their Power Packs Buyback Program.

The company took this opportunity to humorously address the common critique that its trade-in values are not enticing enough for sellers.

“This event now constitutes the most valuable single trade-in ever recorded in GameStop history,” the company said. “Furthermore, any trolls who publicly claim that GameStop trade-in values are bad are hereby factually and demonstrably incorrect. Any prior and ongoing objections to our trade values are now deemed without merit and factually invalid.” 

Pokemon cards and other valuable cards, are often judged by their appearance. Ones that are crumpled up and beaten up (like the shiny Arcanine you sent through the wash as a kid) are worth less to collectors. 

A handful of companies, including one called PSA, have set themselves up as authenticators for rare cards. PSA in particular is considered the gold standard for collectors. 

Customers send in cards to these “grading companies,” who then have analysts inspect the cards to see if they’re real, and what condition they’re in. Anything from scratches to manufacturing defects or printing errors could ding a card on the 10-point grading scale. The cards are then returned in sealed plastic “slabs” labeled with their grade to prevent any other damage and to prove their authenticity. 

A PSA 10 is one of the most coveted grades for any Pokemon card. 

Trading cards have always been a hot commodity, starting with baseball cards throughout the 1900s. But the market took off in the 1990s when Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon cards first came out. Rarer cards were obviously more valuable, and as new sets have come out and time has worn on, nostalgia has raised some of their prices even more. 

The market has gotten even more pricey after the COVID-19 pandemic, which many fans credit with raising the secondary market prices for many cards because of the influx of people that entered the trading card world as a hobby during that time. 

Even celebrities like Post Malone and Tom Brady have gotten into the market. Malone is a famous Magic fan, and paid around $2 million in 2023 for a one-of-a-kind card based on the One Ring from Lord of the Rings. 

Brady, since retiring from the NFL, has opened a series of card shops, which sell a variety of trading cards. He currently owns nine card shops across the country. 

The news about the massive trade-in sale comes days before GameStop’s newest promotion. For a single day in December, customers will be able to trade “anything” in at GameStop locations for store credit. 

The single-day promotion kicks off on Dec. 6 and allows for customers to trade mostly anything for some money toward video games, consoles and more. It is the first time the gaming store is running the promotion. 

GameStop typically allows customers to trade in gaming products for store credit. The “Trade Anything Day” expands the parameters of the trade-in policy to include a range of items, including taxidermy. 

Customers are limited to one item each, according to GameStop. 

The items must fit a 20x20x20 measuring box and employees have discretion to reject any items.